orinoco gold wireless pcmcia redhat 9.0 (i've provided lots of details :) )

hey,

i'm a relative newbie to linux so any help would be greatly appreciated. i've checked out many old posts on this and other sites, but to no avail. here's my problem. i was running redhat8.0 with a regular wired ethernet card (eth0) on my laptop. no problems with that, all was fine.

then i got a proxim orinoco gold pcmcia wireless ethernet card. partly due to that, and partly due to better graphical support for my chipset, i decided to upgrade to redhat9.0.

i went for a fresh install but did not bother setting up my eth0 nic. instead i want to just set up my wireless pcmcia card, for the moment anyway. i presume this will be eth1.

from what i've read redhat9.0 seems to have pretty good native support for the orinoco gold card. here is exactly what i did to set up my wireless connection:

# insmod orinoco
# insmod orinoco_cs
# insmod hermes
# modprobe orinoco
# modprobe orinoco_cs
# modprobe hermes

after doing this, i get the following output from lsmod:

# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
orinoco_cs 5864 0
orinoco 36024 0 [orinoco_cs]
hermes 8196 0 [orinoco_cs orinoco]
ds 8680 1 [orinoco_cs]
yenta_socket 13472 1
pcmcia_core 57216 0 [orinoco_cs ds yenta_socket]

there is more to that output, but i think that is all that is relevant - i'll post the rest if anyone thinks it'll help.

next i ran:

# cardctl ident

and got:

Socket 0:
product info: "Agere Systems", "Wireless PC Card Model 0111", "", ""
manfid: 0x0156, 0x0003
function: 6 (network)

so i made a /etc/pcmcia/hermes.conf file that contained the following:

device "orinoco_cs"
class "network"
module "hermes", "orinoco", "orinoco_cs"
card "Wireless PC Card Model 0111"
manfid 0x0156, 0x0003
bind "orinoco_cs"

finally i ran:

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart

and heard two high pitched beeps. from what i've read this means the card has been accepted and next i just have to configure the network. am i correct in assuming this?

next i went to the redhat network confirguration gui tool (in system settings>network).

under the devices tab i clicked "new".
then selected "wireless connection".
then "other wireless card".
then "lucent orinoco and prism II-based pcmcia wireless".
i selected it as eth1 and left the irq, mem, io, dma all blank.
from here i just kept clicking forward and accepting the default (i.e. mostly blank and automatic) options.

doing all this created the device eth1 as a wireless device. however when i clicked "activate", i got the following message:

interface 'eth1' not found
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
invalid argument "s:".
Determining IP information for eth1...SIOCSIFFLAGS: Connection timed out
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Connection timed out
failed.

i'm really stuck what to do from here. it seems to me that the card has been accepted but i'm doing something stupid when it comes to setting up the network. does this seem to be a fair assumption?

here is some other output that might be useful:

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 gives:

# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=yes
GATEWAY=
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=eth1
HWADDR=00:10:C6:1C:1A:70
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
ONBOOT=yes
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
NAME=
DOMAIN=
ESSID=default
CHANNEL=6
MODE=Managed
KEY=s:
RATE=Auto

/etc/modules.conf gives:

alias eth1 orinoco_cs

if i run iwconfig i get:
# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:"mynickname"
Mode:Managed Channel:-190 Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
RTS thr=21 B
Encryption keyff

# ifconfig eth1
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 15:00:02:00:01:00
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x200

the last few lines of dmesg are:

hermes.c: 5 Apr 2002 David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au>
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
ds: no socket drivers loaded!
unloading Kernel Card Services
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:03.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:01.4
Yenta IRQ list 00b8, PCI irq11
Socket status: 30000411
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x378-0x37f 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean.
hermes.c: 5 Apr 2002 David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au>
orinoco.c 0.11b (David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au> and others)
orinoco_cs.c 0.11b (David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au> and others)
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth1
eth1: Station identity 0015:0002:0001:000a
eth1: Looks like an Intersil firmware version 1.10
eth1: Ad-hoc demo mode supported
eth1: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
eth1: WEP supported, 104-bit key
eth1: MAC address 15:00:02:00:01:00
eth1: Station name " "
eth1: ready
eth1: index 0x07: Vcc 5.0, irq 3, io 0x0200-0x027f
eth1: Channel out of range (21)!
hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 409M
agpgart: Detected SiS 630 chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xe0000000
sisfb: Fatal error: Unable to reserve frame buffer memory
sisfb: Is there another framebuffer driver active?

i think they're all that's relevant. i dont really know what any of it means but i take it that the

eth1: Channel out of range (21)!

isnt good, nor is the rest of it about the card being removed... especially seeing as how i didnt remove the card...

anywho, any help would be greatly appreciated and i'll post whatever else you think might be necessary. and just to state the obvious, the card does actually work coz i've been using it under windows xp with no problems.

From ifcfg-eth1 try deleting the line

KEY=s:

and restart your pcmcia servce and see what happens.

Cheers--
Charles

What is the model number of the card?

cnjohnson: i did what you suggested. the pcmcia seemed to restart ok from the terminal, however when i tried to open up the network configuration gui i got the following error:

Component: redhat-config-network
Version: 1.2.0
Summary: TB /usr/src/build/228093-i386/install/usr/lib/python2.2/sre.py:137:search:TypeError: expected string or buffer
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/sbin/redhat-config-network-gui", line 154, in ?
window = mainDialog()
File "/usr/src/build/226257-noarch/install/usr/share/redhat-config-network/netconfpkg/gui/maindialog.py", line 154, in __init__
File "/usr/src/build/226257-noarch/install/usr/share/redhat-config-network/netconfpkg/gui/maindialog.py", line 225, in load
File "/usr/src/build/226257-noarch/install/usr/share/redhat-config-network/netconfpkg/gui/maindialog.py", line 232, in loadDevices
File "/usr/src/build/226257-noarch/install/usr/share/redhat-config-network/netconfpkg/NCDeviceList.py", line 210, in getDeviceList
File "/usr/src/build/226257-noarch/install/usr/share/redhat-config-network/netconfpkg/NCDeviceList.py", line 117, in load
File "/usr/src/build/226257-noarch/install/usr/share/redhat-config-network/netconfpkg/plugins/NCDevWireless.py", line 34, in load
File "/usr/src/build/226257-noarch/install/usr/share/redhat-config-network/netconfpkg/NCWireless.py", line 52, in load
File "/usr/src/build/228093-i386/install/usr/lib/python2.2/sre.py", line 137, in search
return _compile(pattern, flags).search(string)
TypeError: expected string or buffer

Local variables in innermost frame:
pattern: ^s:
flags: 0
string: None

g0es: the model of my card is "proxim orinoco gold 8420-WD"

also guys, from reading previous posts on similar problems i have a suspicion that there may be an irq conflict. so i ran the following:

# cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 8953 XT-PIC timer
1: 65 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
3: 17 XT-PIC orinoco_cs
8: 1 XT-PIC rtc
9: 0 XT-PIC usb-ohci, usb-ohci
11: 6 XT-PIC O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6812 Cardbus Controller, SiS 7018 PCI Audio
12: 398 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 6833 XT-PIC ide0
15: 424 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
ERR: 0


# cat /proc/ioports
0000-001f : dma1
0020-003f : pic1
0040-005f : timer
0060-006f : keyboard
0070-007f : rtc
0080-008f : dma page reg
00a0-00bf : pic2
00c0-00df : dma2
00f0-00ff : fpu
0170-0177 : ide1
01f0-01f7 : ide0
0200-027f : orinoco_cs
02f8-02ff : serial(auto)
0376-0376 : ide1
0378-037a : parport0
03c0-03df : vesafb
03f6-03f6 : ide0
03f8-03ff : serial(auto)
0cf8-0cff : PCI conf1
4000-40ff : PCI CardBus #02
4400-44ff : PCI CardBus #02
a000-afff : PCI Bus #01
ac80-acff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS630 GUI Accelerator+3D
d000-d0ff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet
d000-d0ff : sis900
d400-d4ff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS PCI Audio Accelerator
d400-d4ff : SiS 7018 PCI Audio
d800-d87f : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 56k Winmodem (Smart Link HAMR5600 compatible)
dc00-dcff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 56k Winmodem (Smart Link HAMR5600 compatible)
ff00-ff0f : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
ff00-ff07 : ide0
ff08-ff0f : ide1

i'm not sure what i should be looking for here, but does anything seem to conflict?

thanks

I have been trying to get the same model card to work under redhat 9.0 also. I haven't had much luck. I called proxim tech support on the matter. They guy i talked to said that the card was using the new hermes2 chipset. He said they were no longer providing support for linux. I also asked if he could tell how to find out what firmware was shipped with the card. He said he had know idea because they hadn't given them any information on it yet. I have know idea if the orinoco_cs driver even works with the card. It doesn't with mine. I'm going to try to set up exactly like you did and i will let you know what happens.

cool, thanks g0es.

lemmie know how you get on. i'm no expert (by any stretch of the imagination!) but it seems to me that the card is actually getting recognised but there seems to be a conflict somewhere. i'm hoping someone who knows something about irqs may be able to provide some help.

anyway, lemmie know hoe you fare...

Well I think we are both in the same boat i'm not a expert either.
well when i set hermes.conf to load orinoco_cs the driver crashes.
This shows up on the screen:
hermes @ IO 0x200: Truncating LTV record from -2 to 6 bytes. (rid=0xfc01, len 0x0000)
hermes @ IO 0x200: Truncating LTV record from -2 to 34 bytes. (rid=0xfc0e, len=0x0000)
hermes @ IO 0x200: Truncating ...... Any way there are a total of 8 lines with similar info if anyone wants more i can post it.

then it says
eth1: firmware ALLOC bu detected (old Symbol firmware?). Trying to work around. .. failed!
eth1: Error -5 allocating Tx buffer
Freeing alive device c7652800, eth1
orinoco_cs: register_netdec() failed

It would be interesting to see if anyone got this same model(8420-WD) to work in Linux(at this point i could care less about what distro)

When i use the orinoco_old_cs driver it seems to work. I can do a iwconfig and it shows eth1 but it says the the channel is invalid and it is set to -160 When i try to change it it says that i can't....

I think i might try a couple other drivers and see if they work.

Greetings

I also have the Orinoco Gold Card model 8420-wd and running Redhat 8.0 and I have run into simular problems as jipe.

So keep me informed if anyone of you figures out the solution, as will I.

jipe have you messed with the channel? it seems strange that it is set to a negative number. Mine was set to -160.

I got the orinoco_cs driver to load with out complaing. I reinstalled Redhat 9.0 then just followed what jipe did. I still don't think it is working properly. No lights on the card at all!!
so jipe i'm getting what you are.

reiknivel what kind of errors are you seeing?

g0es,

i havent actually messed about with the channel yet, but i'll try it later on. i'm actually getting a message about the channel being out of range so maybe you're on to something. here's the output from /var/log/messages when i boot up with the card inserted:

Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: socket 0: Wireless PC Card Model 0111
Jul 16 11:38:45 name network: Setting network parameters: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:45 name network: Bringing up loopback interface: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:48 name netfs: Mounting other filesystems: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: 'modprobe hermes'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: 'modprobe orinoco'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: 'modprobe orinoco_cs'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: './network start eth1'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name /etc/hotplug/net.agent: invoke ifup eth1
Jul 16 11:38:48 name autofs: automount startup succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: eth1: Channel out of range (21)!
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
Jul 16 11:38:50 name sshd: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:50 name dhclient: receive_packet failed on eth1: Network is down
Jul 16 11:38:51 name xinetd[2246]: xinetd Version 2.3.10 started with libwrap options compiled in.
Jul 16 11:38:51 name xinetd[2246]: Started working: 1 available service
Jul 16 11:38:53 name dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
Jul 16 11:38:53 name dhclient: send_packet: Network is down

it says eth1: Channel out of range (21)! so maybe if we mess about with that setting...

has anyone any other ideas?!?! i'm desperate at this stage (as are g0es and reiknivel, i'm sure). i thought the orinoco gold was very well supported. had anyone got it working? if not this exact card, then how about another orinoco card?

i'll give it another day or two before posting in harware and seeing if they've any fresh insights

Currently i'm putting a half ass log together of what i tried and why i don't think it works. I will put it up soon and hopefully it will give some one a brain storm

ok, i think this is a dead end. i'm gonna place a quick post in hardware and see if anyone comes up with anything.

thanks for all your help anyway guys...

Ya you are probaly right about it being a dead end....it sucks but if we give it some time i'm sure some one willl get some drivers put together

did anyone here ever get this thing to work?

I have a Proxim orinoco SILVER card, 8481-WD. I tried doing what you're doing (since on airsnort's site (http://airsnort.shmoo.com/orinocoinfo.html) they say that the orinoco_cs driver works on the Gold card and the Silver has been reported to work), but I have not been able to actually get it to work.

Then I stumbled on the vt_ar5k package. It works and recognizes the silver card, but unfortunately I need monitoring/sniffing capabilities and I'm not sure if vt_ar5k provides that.

With silver, NOTHING happens at all when I insert the card or modprobe orinoco_cs.

http://team.vantronix.net/ar5k/

(Yes it's slow)

Their CVS is newer though, so use CVS is you can. (If not, I'll tarball the cvs that I got today and post it somewhere)

Good luck!

/me goes off looking for a driver for silver